‘Hizb ut-Tahrir moves to fill void left by Hamas in the West Bank’

(Hizb ut-Tahrir supporters mobilize in Ramallah)

Don’t you love the quality of Palestinian political opposition? This group Hizb ut-Tahrir, a watered down version of the Muslim Brotherhood that is gaining rapid popularity in the West Bank, still believes Pan-Islamic unity and a revival of the Islamic Caliphate is the answer to the Arab and Islamic world’s ills. Among their grievances are democracy, the principle of a two-state solution alongside Israel and the 1924 dissolution of the caliphate by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey.

(Christian Science Monitor) — “A new fundamentalist player is emerging in Palestinian politics. The group sounds like Hamas – or even Al Qaeda – but doesn’t support suicide bombings or secret militias. In recent months, it has shown it can put tens of thousands of supporters into the streets. Founded in Jerusalem by a Palestinian-Jordanian judge more than 50 years ago – and once considered a quiet if quirky religious group with a utopian vision of returning to a time when the Muslim world was united – Hizb ut-Tahrir (the Party of Liberation) is now filling a hole left by Hamas in the West Bank… Ehud Ya’ari, one of the foremost Israeli commentators on Palestinian and Middle Eastern affairs… notes that since the group officially eschews violence, preferring instead to wait for some “coup de grace” in the form of a divinely ordained moment of international jihad, Israeli and Palestinian security services have not viewed them as a major threat. But, he quips, “they are not a vegetarian movement.“Click for full article